Really, there's no excuse for me to keep forgetting the excellent Donald Pittenger and his superb site Art Contrarian but I do despite him being there on my blog-roll! Mind you, it adds to the pleasure of viewing his site when there is so much to catch up on.
Today, I have chosen one of those excellent English artists some of whose work appeared on those elegant posters between the wars. His name was Norman Wilkinson (1877-1971) and here is a picture of his executed in poster style:
He served in the Royal Navy during WWI so in a sense he knew where-of he painted! Here is another very evocative painting from WWII:
Flying boat rescuing the crew of a Liberator
Oh, would I love to have that hanging on my wall!
And here's an aerial one from between the wars:
Hawker Harts of 601 Squadron - c. 1936
As Pettinger puts it, "The sky is vast and the Harts are small."
Alas, 'age does wither them', in this case, Beatty's famous flagship from Jutland, HMS Lion, probably on its way to the scrapyard in 1924. The end of one of his "big cats!"
Finally, a picture of the Coronation review in 1953. As Pettingers adds, ruefully, "I'm sorry to say that the next coronation review probably won't be as impressive as this one was." Quite so, they'll probably hold it in the Serpentine!
An excellent artist by any standards but a supreme one when compared to any winner of the Turner Prize in the last 30 years!
